Meinhard of Carinthia

Meinhard, Duke of Carinthia (1238-1 November 1295) was Duke of Carinthia from 1286 to 1295, succeeding Rudolf I of Germany and preceding Henry of Bohemia.

Biography
Meinhard was born in 1238, the son of Meinhard III of Gorizia and Adelheid of Tyrol - he was born into the House of Gorizia. In 1259, he married Elizabeth of Bavaria, the widow of Conrad IV of Germany, who was ten years his senior. He received the County of Tyrol in 1271 and became the progenitor of the Tyrol Meinhardiners, creating Tyrol as an autonomous state of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1267, he accompanied his stepson Conradin on his campaign to Italy in hopes of increasing his relations with the Hohenstaufen dynasty, but he had to seek new allies after Conradin was defeated, captured, and executed after the Battle of Tagliacozzo. In 1278, he was elevated to Prince of the Holy Roman Empire after Ottokar II of Bohemia's defeat at the Marchfeld, and he would be a powerful noble until his death in 1295.